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UP govt may be coordinated from the Centre

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are now thinking of setting up at the central level the coordination committee for their proposed coalition government in Uttar Pradesh in an attempt to avoid problems between their state units.

"Our negotiations with [BSP leader] Mayawati and her party colleagues are considering the possibility of having the coordination committee at the central level to avoid undue interference at the state level," senior BJP politician Jagdish Prasad Mathur said. "It is just a suggestion and our parliamentary board will most likely give its seal of approval to the decision tomorrow [April 27]."

Another BJP politician indicated that the suggestion of having the coordination committee at the central level had come because of the BSP's fear that if the chairmanship of the panel went to a BJP politician like former chief minister Rajnath Singh, it could stand to lose a lot of leverage.

"The suggestion has been made with the view that if the coordination is at the central level, the central leaders [of both the BJP and the BSP] can take an unbiased view and prevent any divergence of views between the partners from spiralling our of control," he said.

He indicated that with the BJP parliamentary board approving the intricacies of the BSP-BJP government formation on Saturday, "there is a possibility that it can exist from Sunday onwards".

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh, whose Rashtriya Lok Dal will be a junior partner in the proposed Uttar Pradesh government, met Mayawati on Thursday night and told her that he would not insist on his earlier demand for the deputy chief minister's post for his party.

In return, Mayawati indicated her willingness to give a couple of ministerial berths to RLD legislators, the BJP leader said. The RLD has 14 legislators in the state. Five independent MLAs have also sworn allegiance to Singh.

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